Polycarbonates, poly(ester-carbonates), and polyarylates are well known thermoplastic materials which, due to their many advantageous physical properties, find use as thermoplastic engineering materials in many commercial and industrial applications. These resins, for example, exhibit excellent properties of toughness, flexibility, impact strength, optical clarity, and heat resistance. All such resins may generally be prepared by the reaction of a dihydric phenol, such as bisphenol-A, with a carbonate precursor or an aromatic dicarboxylic acid.
These resins, particularly polycarbonate, have been blended with polyamide resin to produce blends having various modified properties. Japanese Kokai No. 116541/50 discloses blends of 5-20% by weight nylon 12 and 80-95% by weight polycarbonate for use in electric insulators. Japanese Pat. Kokai No. 85420/56 discloses polyamide fibers containing 0.5-10% by weight polycarbonate. Japanese Pat. Publn. No. 26936/76 discloses adhesive compositions containing 5-40% by weight of polycarbonate resin and 95-60% by weight of polyamide resin. Japanese Pat. Kokai No. 61050/55 discloses molding compositions containing 100 weight parts poly(ester-carbonate) and 1-150 weight parts polyamide. U.S. Pat. No. 4,317,891, Sakano, et al., discloses thermoplastic blends containing polycarbonate, polyamide, and conjugated diene rubber copolymer.
These disclosed blends are useful for their intended and described purposes. However, it is well known that such blends by no means live up to expectations in either the combination of physical properties present or the level of physical properties attained. Ductility and impact strength are poor. Elongation to break is at marginally useful levels for ordinary purposes. It is theorized that there blends lack the degree of compatibility necessary for each resin to contribute the excellent physical properties that it may possess to the blend as a whole.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to produce blends of polycarbonate, poly(ester-carbonate), and/or polyarylate with polyamide having improved ductility, impact strength, and elongation to break.
It is another object of the present invention to produce blends of polycarbonate, poly(ester-carbonate), and/or polyarylate with polyamide having improved compatibility.
It is a further object of the present invention to improve the ductility, impact strength and elongation to break of polycarbonate, poly(ester-carbonate), and/or polyarylate blends with polyamide by the addition of an effective amount of a reactive epoxy functional material.
Finally, it is an object of the present invention to improve the compatibility of polycarbonate, poly(ester-carbonate), and/or polyarylate blends with polyamide by the addition of an epoxy functional compatibilizing agent.